Improving Your Crochet Tension

Learning how to improve the tension in your crochet stitches is essential for consistent stitches and increased speed. It takes time to get it right so be patient with yourself. There is no right or wrong way to hold your yarn but, in this video, I show you 3 ways to get you started. Any adjustments you make to these methods are totally fine. After all, you are working with your hands and your brain. However, you find to make it work and maintain consistent tension is the right way for you. For more tips and tricks, CLICK HERE to subscribe to my mailing list.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello crochet fans! Tashia Butterfield here. Alpaca ranch and crochet instructor with Forever Bliss Crochet. Today we’re talking about how to improve your tension in crochet. Now, the tension is the job of your non-dominant hand. For those of you who are right-handed, like me, that’s going to be our left hand. Naturally, if you’re left-handed, that’s going to be your right hand. The job of your non-dominant hand is to control the tension of the yarn as it goes to your hook. What is tension? Tension is how tight or how loose your yarn is. If you’re having trouble with your tension, there are a couple of things that are likely going on. First of all, don’t get so caught up in what your hook is doing that you are not paying attention to your yarn hand. Your yarn hand is just as important as your hook hand. There are a number of things in crochet in which there is no right or wrong way to do something and how you hold your yarn in your non-dominant hand is one of those things. There is no right or wrong way.

What is tension? Tension is how tight or how loose your yarn is. If you’re having trouble with your tension, there are a couple of things that are likely going on. First of all, don’t get so caught up in what your hook is doing that you are not paying attention to your yarn hand. Your yarn hand is just as important as your hook hand. There are a number of things in crochet in which there is no right or wrong way to do something and how you hold your yarn in your non-dominant hand is one of those things. There is no right or wrong way. However you managed to find the solution to maintain your tension is the way that you should hold your yarn. So let’s start off with a hold that kind of right down the middle. It’s actually the way that I hold it. And then, from there, I’ll show you how to tighten or how to loosen your tension. So I start by taking my pinky behind the yarn and I wrap my pinky around it. If you know sign language, think of the J letter. Wrap it around your yarn. And then I take the part that is going to my hook and I place in between my index finger and my middle finger. And lay that yarn right over the index finger. As you can see the yarn freely move through my hand. That is essential for maintaining good tension. If your yarn is not moving through your hand, you’re not making any stitches because once you make a stitch there’s no new yarn for your hook to use. If you find this method too tight, here is something that you can do. You can wrap your yarn around your index finger twice. I would not recommend more than twice because you run the risk of cutting off circulation to your finger. For some people, wrapping around the index finger is all that’s needed. Remember, all that needs to happen is your yarn moving a consistent way through your hand. If you find the first

So let’s start off with a hold that kind of right down the middle. It’s actually the way that I hold it. And then, from there, I’ll show you how to tighten or how to loosen your tension. So I start by taking my pinky behind the yarn and I wrap my pinky around it. If you know sign language, think of the J letter. Wrap it around your yarn. And then I take the part that is going to my hook and I place in between my index finger and my middle finger. And lay that yarn right over the index finger. As you can see the yarn freely move through my hand. That is essential for maintaining good tension. If your yarn is not moving through your hand, you’re not making any stitches because once you make a stitch there’s no new yarn for your hook to use. If you find this method too tight, here is something that you can do. You can wrap your yarn around your index finger twice. I would not recommend more than twice because you run the risk of cutting off circulation to your finger. For some people, wrapping around the index finger is all that’s needed. Remember, all that needs to happen is your yarn moving a consistent way through your hand. If you find the first

If you find this method too tight, here is something that you can do. You can wrap your yarn around your index finger twice. I would not recommend more than twice because you run the risk of cutting off circulation to your finger. For some people, wrapping around the index finger is all that’s needed. Remember, all that needs to happen is your yarn moving a consistent way through your hand. If you find the first

If you find the first hold is too loose, here’s something that you can do. After you wrapped your pinky, go ahead and weave it through all of your fingers. And then hold. So that’s three different yarn holds to get you started and experiment with. Remember, any little alteration that you do is going to be just fine as long as you are maintaining your yarn control through your hands. The yarn is able to move freely yet you are controlling how fast that yarn is actually getting to move.

If you’d like more crochet tips and instruction, CLICK HERE to subscribe to my mailing list and get my monthly newsletter. If you have suggestions for more video topics, please leave them in the comments below. I’ll see you in the next video!